Long Term Evolution (LTE) is rapidly being deployed in cellular networks. LTE technology offers high speed bandwidth for the provision of applications and other data services. One aspect of applications taking advantage of the increased bandwidth is machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. M2M communications permit users to deploy, manage and control a wide range of sensors for use on or in appliances, automobiles, security systems, transportation systems, and the like.
Sensors operating on cellular networks are typically treated as normal cellular telephone devices having a unique one-to-one relationship with the network. Each sensor must have its own network ID and network authentication capability. Such a device is typically always connected to the network and therefore is consuming resources in terms of both signaling and data communications. Moreover, the necessity of the sensors being always “on” may be a drain on power to the device itself. This configuration is extremely costly and inefficient.